BILL NUMBER: AB 162 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 24, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Rodriguez
( Coauthors: Assembly Members
Chávez, Gonzalez, and Lackey )
( Coauthor: Senator Anderson
)
JANUARY 21, 2015
An act to add and repeal Section 21651.1 of the Vehicle Code,
relating to state highways.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 162, as amended, Rodriguez. State highways: wrong-way driving.
Existing law requires a vehicle to be driven on the right half of
a roadway, subject to specified exceptions. On a highway that has
been divided into 2 or more roadways by means of intermittent
barriers or by means of specified kinds of dividing sections,
existing law makes it unlawful to drive a vehicle on that highway,
except to the right of the intermittent barrier or dividing section
that separates 2 or more opposing lanes of traffic.
This bill would require the Department of Transportation, in
consultation with the Department of Motor Vehicles
the California Highway Patrol , to initiate a
12-month study update a 1989 report on wrong-way
driving on state highways to account for technological
advancements and innovation, to include a review of methods studied
or implemented by other jurisdictions and entities to prevent
wrong-way drivers from entering state highways, and to provide the
report to specified legislative committees on or before January 1,
2017 . The bill would require the study
report to incorporate findings and recommendations to
the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislation,
including solutions to reduce the number of instances of wrong-way
driving and a proposed schedule for implementation of those solutions
identify any additional treatments and technologies
with the potential to reduce the number of instances of wrong-way
driving on state highways and to include a plan to incorporate those
treatments and technologies into the Department of Transportation's
wrong way monitoring and mitigation program . The bill would
make related findings and declarations.
The bill would provide that its provisions are repealed as of
January 1, 2021.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Wrong-way driving on state highways kills or injures
hundreds of numerous Californians each year.
(b) Accidents caused by wrong-way driving on highways are more
likely to result in fatal and or
serious injuries than other types of accidents.
(c) From 2003 to 2012, drivers traveling the wrong way
caused 436 fatal collisions and 5,006 injury collisions in
California, as reported by According to
the Department of the California Highway Patrol , from
2001 to 2014, inclusive, a total of 193 fatal collisions and 685
injury collisions occurred on state highways in this state as a
result of wrong-way driving .
(d) Innovative countermeasures are needed to prevent drivers from
entering the highway the wrong way.
SEC. 2. Section 21651.1 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read:
21651.1. (a) The Department of Transportation, in consultation
with the Department of Motor Vehicles the
California Highway Patrol , shall initiate a 12-month
study on wrong-way driving on state highways and shall provide, on or
before January 1, 2017, its recommendations to the appropriate
policy and fiscal committees of the Senate and the Assembly. The
study shall incorporate findings and any other information that the
Department of Transportation deems helpful. update the
June 1989 report entitled "Prevention of Wrong-Way Accidents"
prepared by the Department of Transportation pursuant to Chapter 153
of the Statutes of 1987. The update shall account for technological
advancements and innovation since publication of the 1989 report and
shall include a review of methods studied or implemented by other
jurisdictions, including state or local agencies within or outside
the state, and methods studied by nongovernmental entities to prevent
wrong-way drivers from entering state highways. The updated report
shall be provided to the Senate Committee on Housing and Transportati
on and the Assembly Committee on Transportation on or
before January 1, 2017. The study
report shall include proposed solutions
identify any additional treatments and technologies with the
potential to reduce the number of instances of wrong-way
driving on state highways and a proposed schedule for
implementing those solutions. shall include a plan to
incorporate those treatments and technologies into the Department of
Transportation's wrong way monitoring and mitigation program for the
state highway system.
(b) This section is repealed on January 1, 2021, pursuant to
Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.